Jeanie, Whistler’s most famous bear, shot dead by conservation officer

Jeanie, Whistler's most famous bear, shot dead by conservation officer

By Sean Sullivan

VANCOUVER—The most famous bear in Whistler, B.C., is dead after being shot by a conservation officer.

Jeanie the black bear, known for a triangle-shaped patch of white fur on her chest, a camera-friendly personality and an astonishing number of cubs in her 20-some years at the ski resort community, was killed on Friday after weeks of escalating conflicts.

“We’ve managed this bear for quite a long time, but the type of conflict she and her cub were engaging in most recently was definitely a threat to public safety and beyond reasonable limits,” Insp. Chris Doyle of the BC Conservation Officer Service said.

Jeanie was shot after being caught in a trap and tranquilized, Doyle said. Her cub has been sent to an orphaned wildlife rehabilitation centre in Langley, B.C.

The bear’s death has prompted a debate on Facebook, where a “Friends of Jeanie the Bear” website has attracted hundreds of followers over the years. Jeanie has been seen in and around Whistler for more than 20 years, according to the Get Bear Smart society.

“It is with deep, deep sadness that I must inform you that Jeanie has been killed,” led off a series of posts from heartbroken wildlife lovers. “This is very very sad but probably inevitable. Jeanie will stay in our mind,” wrote Corinne Schevin.

“I cannot even express the sadness I felt in reading this post a few (minutes) ago when we returned from a day trip,” wrote Sky Babu. “I think it is likely the powers that be had simply grown weary of dealing with Jeanie and were no longer interested in other options.”

Others pointed out that the much-watched Jeanie, whose fans tracked every spotting of her on Facebook, was a healthy weight this season, despite a few years of poor berry crops.

“This suggests that it was a bad habit rather than desperation,” wrote Danni Kinsman, “so this behaviour would have only continued or gotten worse.”

Jeanie’s cub will join a number of other orphaned bears at Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley, including three cubs — Rose, Kira and Kaymona — whose mother was euthanized after being caught eating from a garbage bin near an elementary school.

The trap for Jeanie, a star of many Whister bear-watching excursions, was set as a result of weeks of persistent, accelerating problem behaviour, Doyle said.

In recent weeks she broke into the Roundhouse Lodge at the top of Whistler Mountain and a restaurant in the village, and was seen attempting to force her way into other buildings, he said. The bear also bluff-charged employees in and around the restaurants.

“When bears become habituated they don’t easily scare off,” Doyle said. “In the case of this bear, she was very comfortable around people.

“We really tried hard to keep that bear. It wasn’t a decision we took lightly, that’s for sure.”

Get Bear Smart had pleaded with the conservation officer service to relocate the animal, even finding a temporary enclosure at another wildlife shelter, according to its website. Both requests were denied.

Still, a long-distance move might not have worked anyway.

“It is unlikely that Jeanie would have survived it and even less likely that the cub would have made it,” the organization said. “They would have almost certainly tried to come back to their home range. That’s what female bears do, and the odds are that they would have starved to death on the way.”